Update: Police investigate "sexting" scandal at Walpole High School

Saturday

Mar 8, 2014 at 9:30 AM

By Keith Fergusonkeith@walpoletimes.com

Police confiscated Walpole High School students’ cell phones last week in search of pornographic photos of their classmates that may have been circulated throughout the school.Deputy Police Chief John Carmichael said his department seized a dozen cell phones via search warrant from students on Tuesday and Wednesday under the belief that they disseminated nude photos of a female classmate via text message.Police began a "sexting" investigation, he said, after an adult tipped off the school and officers that sexting may have been going on.In inspecting the phones this week, Carmichael said detectives discovered multiple students – boys and girls – were involved in the sexting and multiple images were sent out."I want to assure the entire Walpole Public Schools’ community that this matter is being dealt with appropriately and with the best interests of our students in mind," Superintendent Lincoln Lynch wrote in a press release while declining further comment due to student confidentiality laws.Police have gone through seven of the phones already in an attempt to determine which students simply possessed the photos, which students were disseminating them and which students were enticing girls to send them pornographic photos, Carmichael said.Regardless, police said that, though students may end up at a hearing in juvenile court, it’s the department’s intention to divert punitive measures in favor of educational programs to raise the awareness of students and the community.Under state law, any lascivious images of a person under 18 would be classified as child pornography and it would be a felony for the 14 to 18-year-old students to possess the image, but Carmichael said his department is not looking to charge anyone in the matter."Those laws were designed for sexual predators and people targeting that age group," he said. "The intent (of the students) wasn’t to commit a criminal act."The handful of students currently under investigation have been forthright and honest about the sexting, Carmichael said. Police said the adult who originally tipped the school off identified that group."We want to make sure that people understand it’s not the police department’s goal to come down on kids who made a bad choice," Carmichael said.In looking through the phones, he said, it appears the photos may have been widespread throughout the school. However, Carmichael said the department is unlikely to seize more students’ cells."We still don’t know how big this is going to be," he said, "but at some point, we’re going to need to cut it off."If police identified more students, said Carmichael, the end result would still be the same for everyone – outreach instead of arrest. A week into the investigation, he added, any students with the photos would have already deleted it our otherwise destroyed the evidence. Though police can dredge up deleted photos, it would cause more work for detectives in an already methodic process.Carmichael said the department realizes that sexting is a concern everywhere."More than a schoolwide issue, I think it’s an age issue – a generational issue. Because of the technological advances, kids do this," he said. "This isn’t unique to Walpole."When police we’re notified of the matter, Carmichael said, officers were required to take action – launching an investigation to get a handle on what was going on and determine if criminal charges should be pursued.Officers have been to the school several times since the phones were taken primarily in order to meet with parents and staff about the investigation and quell rampant rumors, according to Carmichael.Police said the photos spanned a lengthy timeline with some sent out at the beginning of the school year while others were disseminated as late as last week."There’s still a lot of work to do as far as investigation and then it comes down to what to do from there," Carmichael said.He said the department will begin working with the district attorney on the matter to have the cases thrown out in pre-arraignment stages. The department will seek to work with the schools in order to set-up ways to educate students, police and school staff about sexting.He said he doesn’t know if the school district has or will seek to punish any students for sexting."As negative as this situation seems, we need to turn it into a positive and learn a lesson from it," Carmichael said.